Thyroid hormones (T3 and T4) are essential to maintain your metabolic rate, which affects your weight and energy levels, among many other things. Thyroid hormone can decline with age just as other hormones do and are tested with a simple blood test.
If your thyroid hormones are low, you may have symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, dry skin, hair loss, cold hands or feet, constipation, and mental symptoms such as depression or memory problems. Symptoms of high thyroid include loss of weight, jitteriness, heart pounding or palpitations, bone loss, fatigue, trouble sleeping, trembling hands, irritability, muscle weakness, feeling too hot, and if extreme, chest pain and shortness of breath.
Many things can affect the thyroid gland including toxins such as mercury, bromine and chlorine. Iodine and other nutrients are also essential for normal thyroid function. At Optimal Health Spectrums, we know how to test for and treat all of that.
At Optimal Health Spectrums, the usual kind of thyroid medication that we prescribe is natural thyroid with both of the thyroid hormones T3 and T4 in the proper ratios. Most patients feel better when they get both thyroid hormones and not just one, the way most doctors do it.
It is very important to maintain thyroid hormones at the proper level, which is often the upper end of the reference range for Free T3 and Free T4. Being low normal in thyroid is not good enough for many patients to feel optimally well. Overall, maintaining optimal thyroid hormone levels (along with other hormone levels) is an important component to brain and body health as we age.